A great piece over at Carolina Journal about potentially serious changes to the fishing regulations in NC. Commercial fishermen aren’t really happy about it.
RALEIGH — The General Assembly is moving forward with a proposal by the Coastal Conservation Association that would make red drum, spotted sea trout, and striped bass off-limits to commercial fisherman and thus, fisherman say, the majority of the public.
By designating the three species “game fish,” they only could be caught recreationally, by hook and line, making them unavailable to the 97 percent of North Carolinians who do not fish for themselves.
Commercial fishermen say these are not the first fish to be taken off the market and they won’t be the last. If the CCA has its way, they say, commercial fishing would cease to exist in North Carolina and in most of the United States.
And the Republican heading this effort up, Rep. Darrell McCormick, R-Yadkin, isn’t even from the coast. Sadly, the misguided belief that this will help the economy is akin to the arguments about building convention centers and using incentives from government to create jobs.
“The dock value of one red drum is about $1.50 a pound,” he said. “Its value to our state, as a recreational fish, is $300 a pound.”
McCormick derived that number by dividing the total amount an average vacationer spends on a fishing trip by the number of fish he is allowed to catch on that trip. He says North Carolina’s fish attract tourists from all over the country, especially the Northeast.
“Those guys come down and bring $2,000, $3,000, $6,000, and they stay for a week and go fishing,” McCormick said. “They go to the restaurants. They stay at the hotel. They buy a boat. They spend a few hundred bucks in the tackle shop. They buy bait. Then they go out one day with a guide or on a charter boat.”
So, if we restrict commercial fishermen from catching these fish, then hundreds of other individuals will flock to the coast, take up fishing and catch ‘em? ”Restrict it and they will come,” is a poor policy when it comes to fishing. Where do folks come up with such bizarre policy positions?
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16
2012 At 6:46 pm, castlehayne Said:
If the fishery is in danger due to low population, shut it down for everyone until it recovers. If the theory is cutting out commercial fishing gives the recreational fisherman a better chance for success, thus meaning more will come to the coast to fish, the people with this theory need to be drug tested. The law of unintentional consequence needs to be looked at more than the theory in this article. People that love to fish, fish. The thinking that cutting out commercial fishing will generate boat sales, etc., is a farce. Boat sales and tourism are down because the economy stinks. If the legislature wants to stimulate the economy, job creation, fiscal responsibility by the legislature(quit wasting money), would be a lot better than changing laws that that takes away jobs from working people. This law is about nothing more than politicians looking out for their rich buddies, because they are such bad fishermen that to be successful they need all competition eliminated. Why don’t they just build a big compound (job creation), stock it with trophy fish (stacking the deck), and let these people fish here. When they show off their trophys, no one needs to know they caught them in a barrel. Leave the commercial fishermen alone instead of adding them to the unemployment line. This is nothing more than the rich trying to use a bad situation to stack the deck for themselves. What’s new?
18
2012 At 10:10 am, trenster Said:
I would love to see specks and reds here in NC again. I used to fish at Harker’s Island several times a year. I very rarely caught more than one or two. I now go down to the Gulf Coast several times a year. On the Gulf Coast, they have gotten rid of the nets and I catch fish almost every trip. The limit is 25 trout but a dozen is all I ever keep! I know of several NC residents that wish we had a decent recreational fishery here.